League Details

Top Scorers

- William Ralph Dean 39 goals
- Jimmy Dunn 14 goals
- Tommy 'Tosh' Johnson 14 goals
- Ted Critchley 13 goals

Highest Scores

- 9-1 v Plymouth Argyle at home 
- 7-1 v Charlton Athletic at home
- 6-4 v Oldham Athletic at home

- 7-0 v Charlton Athletic away

- 5-2 v Swansea City away

From left to right (players only) :
Back row : Common, Thomson, Cresswell, Coggins, McPherson, Rigby.
Front row : White, Martin, Critchley, Williams, Dean, Griffiths.

The Everton players returned to pre-season training on 1st August and to prepare themselves for what all connected with the club hoped was to be a short stay in the second division. Four weeks later the 1930-31 season got underway at Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park, and Everton started their drive back to the top flight of English football with a 3-2 victory, the Club’s intent to gain promotion became evident when they won the next four games, to go to the top of the table.

Everton were finding goals easy to come by and scored four or more on several occasions, and on 27 th December they equalled the club’s record league score when they demolished Plymouth 9-1 at Goodison Park.

At the turn of the year Everton sat comfortably on top of the league table, having won 16 of the 22 games played and only lost three. There was no let up in the team’s relentless surge back to the first division and they won the first nine games of 1931, at the beginning of March, with eleven games left to play, they were 13 points ahead of nearest rivals Tottenham Hotspurs, which virtually guaranteed promotion.

With promotion an almost certainty Everton turned their attention to the FA Cup and after despatching Plymouth Argyle, Crystal Palace and Grimsby town, the team was next drawn to play local neighbours, Southport. The Sandgrounders arrived at Goodison with high hopes of coursing a huge upset, but by half time the third division north side were 7-0 down. The second half saw Everton ease off and Southport scored a consolation goal before the home side completed the rout by scoring two more goals.

The prospect of the club’s first visit to Wembley was causing great excitement amongst the supporters and it looked very much a reality when they were drawn against fellow second division side West Bromwich Albion in the semi final. The game was played at Old Trafford and Evertonians made the relative short journey to Manchester in their thousands, such was the interest in the match that it caused chaotic scenes both inside and outside of the ground. A crowd of close to 70,000 were in place for the game and at times the excitement was so intense that the crowd spilled onto the pitch, causing the game to be interrupted on several occasions. It was estimated that 20,000 people were locked out and this caused its own problems on the concourse outside the ground, which resulted in 333 people being injured.

Everton controlled long periods of the game but it was an error by the unfortunate Bill Coggins, who misjudged a cross and left West Brom’s captain Tommy Glidden to score the only goal of the game.

Despite the disappointment of not reaching Wembley for the first time, Everton’s focus turned back to obtaining enough points to gain immediate promotion back to division one. Easter Saturday saw them at home to Bradford City in the knowledge that a win would secure promotion and with the backing of a crowd of 32,313 they record a 4-2 victory to not only clinch promotion but also the second division title.

Everton eventually won the title by seven points from West Bromwich Albion and in doing so set a club record goal scoring record when they ended the season with 121 goals, in 42 league games. Dixie Dean, as usual, led the way with 39 goals and was one of six players who scored on 10 or more occasions. The season was personal triumph for Dean as he completed a double century of goals on 8 th November 1930 in only his 207 th appearance at the age 23 years 290 days.

Squad photograph from the 1930-31 season, which saw Everton promoted back to the first division at the first attempt